Who's Applying to Uni this year?

[M2-Destroyer]

Honestly I think the whole college idea is just a scheme to keep the menaces off the streets.

I do agree with you on that one, it's easy to see when college's start offering Diplomas in Indian Head Massage, or an NVQ certified Nail Technician.

I know exactly what you mean matey ...

HND is a way to skip to the final year ... but what kind of job does it lead to? Medicine, Dentistry, Law? Didn't think so. I've never seen a college student become a doctor, dentist etc, and there's a reason for that (I have seen them do law qualifications in a college, but they were not employed at all)

Actually, the HND is merely just a Diploma, but it is still one step below a Degree qualification.

In response to your question about what kind of job a HND leads to, then it depends entirely on what subject matter your studying. It is perfectly possible for me to leave the college with my HND and step into an IT related job - Might not be the best paid job in the world, in fact, it'll no doubt be the bottom of the ladder, but it's a job related to the qualification. I guess it's better than turning up for an interview claiming in-depth knowledge about IT and having no certification or 'bit of paper' to confirm in.

I presume it was BTEC based course for either I.T, Business? Something clearly over supplied and under demanded in today's economy?

Actually no, BTEC is a completely different qualification up here. They are still offered at the college, but it's much more likely to be offered in Beauty Therapy, Business Management and/or Music. I've never actually done one though, so i couldn't answer whether there is more supply than demand for them, but i've never heard anyone get a job based on a BTEC. Is it not kinda like doing DoE, shows commitment on your part, gives you something else to add to you CV, but isn't employable?

I'm not entirely sure, so i'll leave BTEC's at that.

Further, shave a year off education? Dude you do realise the 'year' you shaved off is the first year of uni? i.e the partying, smoking pot, going wild year? The year where (for most courses) the end of year examinations do not go to your final mark? You've basically skipped the best year of your life.

I already do most of that stuff anyway - Why spend 3k a year and travel 20-30 miles to do it?

The main reason for doing my HND and THEN Uni, is because i screwed around at school and missed out (Mainly for the reasons in your quote). The quickest and easiest way to get into Uni for me, now, is to use the Articulation Agreement from the college to let me step into 3rd year with a HND.

No offense to you man, I'm sure it'll lead to good things for you.

Ah no worries mate - I've got my fingers crossed.



Note: One thing that i can't quite get though, is why do Law at college level, when the other 'elite' jobs (So to speak) are offered only at University level? (Doctor, Accountant etc). Seems a little stupid to me, but hey.

[0zzy]

I'm replying via my phone, + having a joint, so bear with me on any mistakes I may make.

Firstly; Law @ college level, well personally I agree with you, it is one of the elite jobs yet can be taken at college.

Firstly, it may be a college level certificate, I don't know the exact qualification, what I do know is that Law can be taken at A level or BTEC, so presumably many colleges offer the lower qualified version whereby you can not become a lawyer afterwards.

Secondly, law, unlike the other elite subjects, has a very much performance based salary, I.e the difference between the salary of a great doctor and an okay one would be minimal, is there qualification that gets them paid not there performance. Therefore the scheme behind offering law at college level is that out of the millions who do the qualification, one may be brilliantly gifted in the topic, and that person will ascend through the ranks to be a great lawyer, basically a support web to grab the dropouts who could be great lawyers, after all, you may be poor at english etc but be a brilliant lawyer (solving cases etc) but you wouldn't know until you tried, and college will be the first place a drop out could try. This entire paragraph probably don't make sense, I'm on my phone + joint and its very hard to type, think + remember what I'm replying too -.-

You just proved my point, colleges can only get you into low paid jobs, therefore they are for the less gifted who dropped out, perhaps colleges can seperate the dumb arses from the lazy ones (u ).

P.S I went to my mates pad last month in leeds, he was having a party and it was the greatest night of my life. We played spin the bottle and about 10 girls had to take there tops off that's about as much detail as I'm going into the topic.

[M2-Destroyer]

Firstly - About the party:

Duuuuude.

Secondly - Umm ...:

Not bad for texting on your phone!

Thirdly - My Point:

I was only trying to point out that going through college first instead of starting off at Uni yeilds me benefits and i know it probably wasn't your intention, but it seemed like you had classed me as a 'Dropout' in a sense.

[0zzy]

Oh no, I referred to you as lazy, if you're going to Uni clearly you don't have an intellectual deficit, meaning you were lazy, as you stated above; partying, drugs etc.

You're more of a leaver, than a dropout, ygm?

[M2-Destroyer]

I get ye XD

[M2-Destroyer]

I get ye XD

And actually, i chose to stay on for a year voluntarily and didn't leave school at 16

[GRAWRG.]

turned the UCAS in on the 15th. got accepted to bradford a few days ago, lol.

ozzy must not have been lying about it being a trash school.

[M2-Destroyer]

turned the UCAS in on the 15th. got accepted to bradford a few days ago, lol.

ozzy must not have been lying about it being a trash school.

A few days ago?! Are you shitting me?! We don't get to know until May !!

[GRAWRG.]

well there are a lot of things international students need to figure out. we need to know whether we're accepted ahead of time so we can get financial things sorted out. and find out where we'll live, how to get loans over there... etc. plenty of prep work.

they probably also want to snatch smart american students before they get accepted into a good american school and decide not to go to the UK xD

[0zzy]

I got all 5 of my offers before the Jan 5th Deadline.. Sent it off in like December? What you mean we gotta wait 'till May most my school got all their offers.

Oh and GRAWRG - its a pile of BBQ

[GRAWRG.]

didnt you apply to manchester, ozzy? you got that decision already?

i applied on the 15th. so it's been a week now. i dont expect to hear for a while...

[GRAWRG.]

so... i just got an email from manchester. i didnt meet minimum entry requirements 0.o and my application was sent over to the department that considers "foundation year" entry. so i had to google that and figure it out.

i dont get how i didnt meet requirements though. maybe it's because i couldnt list my university courses because UCAS is stupid? by the end of this semester i'll already have a year of college credits, most of which are relevant to my major :/

[0zzy]

Yup even Manchester, offered me AAA.

Hmm GRAWRG, entry requirements are what the uni wants for the course, the issue is, to get a conditional its obviously well before actual results day, so if you were declined an offer or w/e it will be because the predicted or projected grades your teachers gave you were lower than that of what the Uni wants.

A foundation year in the UK is when you dont have the grades and/or subjects required to fulfill a course, you can take an extra year and if you pass you're allowed onto the real course.

[GRAWRG.]

i didnt have any predicted or projected grades. by the time i sent in my application, i had already gotten an A- in university chem, a B in university calc, and an A in university psych.

i talked to someone who did the UCAS, and i did lots of googling, and i was under the impression that if the school was interested, they'd ask for your grades.

i had no way of putting my courses into UCAS

i could list AP courses, and SAT subject tests... but there was not an option for listing my high school classes, or my university classes. they were all wrong. i looked and looked and looked, and there was nothing.

SO, i assumed that they didnt care about that. i did, however, in my essay mention that i had taken 3 university courses and received high grades in all of them. making a 100 on my chemistry final. and that i was signed up for another 3 uni courses this coming semester.

was my application auto-declined before my essay was read, because UCAS was too hugging stupid to give me a reasonable option for putting in my grades? it just isnt even practical putting in all my high school classes. that's 8 a year, 3 years. 24 classes, plus the ones ive taken this year. and i dont just have all those grades on hand.

[0zzy]

B in calc? Your course requires an A in maths, I doubt calc covers maths.

Secondly, just ring your admission tutor up or email them and mention your extra courses!

[GRAWRG.]

someone from manchester emailed me anyway. asked what courses ive taken, specifically if ive taken chem/physics. which means that i was right in thinking that they didnt bother looking at the rest of the app (chem was mentioned a good bit in my personal statement).

also, note that chem/physics isnt math. maths weren't of particular concern.

so suck a dick, ozz.

[0zzy]

First off, I gave my opinion, I spent a good hour or 2 trying to help you and you repay me with sucking your imaginary dick? no, you suck my very physical dick.

And I gave you a list of options, one of them was to ring them and tell them you've done the required qualifications and you said you 'cba'.

[avitohol]

Lol i love ucas!!

Its the most retarded way to setup a university acceptance system. Which in itself breeds stupidity by forcing students in high school to prep for exams, rather than learn that subject.

Your personal statement and recommendation are essential for the acceptance. Yet your recommendation is only from your current teacher. I had several letters of recommendation for archeology since i've done stuff in Bulgaria that most professors in the UK would dream to do. But that doesn't count since its not part of the system.

Yeah pretty bitter at a few uni's over that

Also as far as i remember, you get accepted on your predicted grades. However when the exams are done. You get another offer since the candidates clear up. That is followed by the system clearing which is last chance for that.

Again don't you guys have advisers or seminars for this stuff in the US.

[GRAWRG.]

yeah, no one knew wtf the ucas was. so the most i could learn was from stuff online (which is surprisingly little, and often conflicting) and what im told from people online.

and stop being such a paki ozzy.

[0zzy]

If I was being a Paki i woulda bent you over for speaking back to me.

[GRAWRG.]

if you were a paki you would be busy committing suicide and i would be spared this discussion.

[avitohol]

This thread gives me jokes every time i check it out. Sorry for sounding like a d ick.

BTW where did the paki thing come from?

I mean i've learnt to differentiated the Muslim community. Bangladeshi are wannabe Arabs or rap stars and the Pakistani community like to record their sexual exploits on camera phone.But hey i come from the Saudi area of London which just happens to be off oxford street!

[GRAWRG.]

it was an intentionally generalized, ignorant comment just like the rest in this topic.

but anyway, hug you douchebags. im done here.

[0zzy]

GRAWRG, I hope a Paki finds you if you come UK...

[stgballa]

Paki's are awesome!